#IDW Sonic spring broken

[mike-the-hedgehog]

IDW Sonic Spring Broken! Preview Pages

Writer: Josh Trujillo

Line Art: Adam Bryce Thomas

Colors: Leonardo Ito

Letters: Shawn Lee

Associate Editor: Bixie Mathieu

Editors: David Mariotte & Thea Cheuk

Production Design: Johanna Nattalie

Release Date: 26 June (Dates Subject To Change)

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

Sonic acting like a parent towards Tails in current media is the best 🤣🤩💙💛

[420-what-you-smokin]

I love them so much

[andtails]

Tails is super adorable in IDW Sonic's "Spring Broken!". The artists put all the love and attention on the adorable boi.

[stegocitrus]

It's pretty minor, but I couldn't help getting excited at these panels! This is the first time that Vector and Big have spoken in any official Sonic material!

(Aside from a few in-race voice lines in TSR, but those are just variants of the kinda lines that they'll say to any other character in that game.)

I don't even think they've spoken in the Archie comic, for how long that comic went on for!

I've been dying for these two to interact for so long! I'm really happy!

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Only other thing I've got to say about the spring broken is

Boyfriends of all time💖

[madychi]

Saw the Spring Broken preview images. You already know I had to draw Gage and Gear with a spring festival fit!

[rejoyous]

Uncle Chuck!?

[number-one-shadisper-shipper]

So, um...

Anyone else see a potential ship of Espio and Jewel after Spring Broken?😅

[tealclover]

I am so obsessed with the new spring broken annual you guys. I've wanted Tails to team up with the Chaotix since The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, and this is absolutely scratching that itch!

And Vector's faces!!

And Silver's-! Situation! (He got justice!)

... I will probably be posting more about this, don't mind me!

[sparklingjay]

Everyone: Exited for the flower frolic

Sonic: About to fall asleep

[mike-the-hedgehog]

IDW Sonic Spring Broken! + Info

Release Date June 26 (Dates subject to change)

Cover A Adam Bryce Thomas

Cover B Abigail Starling

Cover RI Abby Bulmer

Official solicitation

Spring has sprung! The flowers are in bloom, and so is trouble! When Sonic, Tails, and friends try to take some downtime, they run into a mystery that's spring broken! A seasonal whodunit in the Sonic style!

[000marie198]

He's acting his age I am crying I love this so much! They letting him be a kid!

[therummesoccupied]

IDW'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, SPRING BROKEN SPECIAL - THOUGHTS

A while back, it became pretty clear that the abundant specials IDW has been releasing for the past year have had a certain... "commonality" about them. Endless Summer, A Very Chaotix Halloween, Winter Jam - the Four Seasons theming read loud and clear. Now, up until a couple months ago, I'd assumed the 900th Adventure Special was meant to be the stand-in for Spring in this lineup, so I was a bit surprised when Spring Broken was announced to round the seasonal specials off. I was interested to see what kind of send-off they'd give this little gaggle of stories.

This time around, we have pencils by Adam Bryce Thomas and colors by Leonardo Ito. These two are a really great combo, as I think Ito's emphasis on simple, soft color palettes compliments the very manga-esque style Adam brings to the table. This style, however, leaves me a little confused as to why he, of all artists, was the one pulled for this story.

ABT tends to be at his best when working on big, over-the-top action sequences. His work really sells the sense of adrenaline the series is trying to convey in its tensest moments. That being said, the story here is... fairly mundane? The characters spend a day at the fair and solve a mystery about flowers. Heck, the entire last couple pages are entirely dedicated to showing the characters enjoying the attractions once all is said and done.

There's not really a ton here in the way of high-stakes plot that would really give Adam a chance to shine.

That being said, there's still enough here that you can see his art style noticably developing a bit in a manner akin to Evan Stanley's. Namely in the way he draws Sonic himself.

It might just be my imagination, here, but I could swear Sonic's quills are longer and come to a more distinct point than the way Adam usually draws them. We know Evan has been taking strides to incorporate elements of official 2D Sonic art into her artstyle, perhaps this is a sign that Adam has been doing the same. Beyond that, I think I'm noticing some more fun and stretchy facial expressions on some of these characters, too. When it comes to the way faces are drawn, I've always found that ABT has a tendency to stay pretty on-model, but here I'm seeing a bit more expressive warping of the facial proportions than I'd expect out of Adam.

Where Adam really knocks it out of the park here, though, is with the background character designs.

Adam's always good at drawing up unique OCs, and there are tons of 'em here. Having so many characters with so many looks and still having a consistent style to them all goes a long way toward helping the world feel just a little more lived in. Another cool bit of background work he contributed is this central figure that pops up in a few places around the festival.

Also I just noticed that Cream and Vanilla are here. Neato.

When asked about this figure on Twitter, ABT said that she's intended to be a sort of Nature Spirit, and that the festival pays reverence to her. She's never mentioned in the story, but it's a neat little detail to see the more spiritual side of this world's cultures.

As I said before, the story, written by Josh Trujillo, is not too incredibly exciting. The majority of the plot centers around the mystery behind the annual Flower Contest, which itself is really three mysteries, all of which are wrapped up pretty quickly. Really, it seems to be less about the mystery, and more about how these characters spend their free time in a sort of slice-of-life fashion. This is fine, and it shows us some neat character interactions we don't normally get to see, like Jewel and Espio or Amy and Nite, but it's also something we've been getting a lot of lately.

It almost makes me wonder, with the amount of miniseries and specials they've been putting out there recently, if it wouldn't be possible, and maybe a better use of resources, to just run a dedicated sister series devoted to telling side stories like Sonic Universe did for Archie.

I'm not the first person to make this point, but perhaps then we could get more big, exciting plots full of stakes and gravitas in the main book. Who knows.

All in all, Spring Broken didn't particularly blow me away. I'd say it's a nice break from the norm but... it's not. It's exactly the kind of story we've frankly been getting in surplus as of late. I'm ready for things to move again, ready for the non-stop, blood-pumping action of Sonic the Hedgehog! There are some cute moments here and there that I do appreciate, but I just wish they could have come at a different time.

Issue #70 drops in about 22 hours for me, so with any luck, that will scratch my itch for more exciting Sonic stories for a bit.

'Til then, thanks for reading!

[bed-buggier]

IDW Sonic is like a toxic ex that you go back to despite the back and forth and I think that will be the case until the background characters stop being as good as they've been

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

See see I was kinda okay about Silvails

I've been open to shipping it, I just haven't really seen a depiction or dynamic for them that has really drawn me in yet

But Spring Broken gave us the "This is my boyfriend you better cheer for him or I'll blow this whole place up" and you know what? I can get behind that